1. Year Two Reading Workshop November 17th 2017
The Federation of The Downs and Northbourne Church of England Primary Schools
Year Two Reading Workshop November 17th 2017

2. Being able to decode words is vital in becoming a reader
Being able to decode words is vital in becoming a reader. But this alone will not make a good reader. Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading.

3. .,! ?
What are full stops for?
It is important that when we are talking about comprehension it requires us to read showing an awareness of punctuation. If we do not the meaning can be misinterpreted.

4. Just because a child can read beautifully does not make them a ‘good’ reader
Have a read of this extract and the answers we were given by a fluent reader in year three.
1. What was Billy doing in the first sentence?
Barking
2. Where were Billy and his mum?
At home
3. What had Billy made his tower from?
Lego

5. The children do need to be praised when they read accurately and quickly (fluently) but they need to recognise that understanding what they have read is more important. They are often unaware that they are failing to get the full meaning of the texts. This is why the next stage of ‘learning to read’ is vital and it is all about talking.

6. Becoming a good reader is about bringing lots of different skills together:
Being able to decode words.
Asking questions about new vocabulary.
Understanding how sentences work.
To remember what they have read from sentence to sentence, page by page, chapter by chapter.
Making connections between the book and themselves, to other books or knowledge of the world.

7. The comprehension skills needed are:
Inference: the ability to go beyond the information given in the text based on their personal experience, knowledge or opinion.
Deduction: the ability to draw a logical conclusion from the information given in the text.

8. How do we help your child do this?
Your child needs easy reads to develop their comprehension. If they are needing to use decoding strategies frequently then their understanding is destroyed.
Think of it like watching a movie in slow motion – the films impact is diminished. Reading a sentence without fluency causes the meaning to be lost.
Next Colour Level

9. The man stepped out of his house and opened his umbrella.
As the children’s decoding skills develop we explore inference in a sentence.
What can you infer from this sentence?
What is suggested by the sentence but not actually said?
The man stepped out of his house and opened his umbrella.

10. Then we move to sentences:
What can you infer from these sentences?
What is suggested by the sentence but not actually said?
Jane was invited to Billy’s party. She wondered if he would like a kite. She shook her piggy bank. It made no sound. Jane was sad.

11. The we use passages of writing, then short stories and finally longer novels.
However, the children’s comprehension will only develop if they read a volume and variety of texts. We call this the reading mileage.

12. The we use passages of writing, then short stories and finally longer novels.

20. When you listen to your child it may seem that your child is not trying – you will see them read a word perfectly on one page, then forget it on the next page. But this is normal when we are learning a new skill. Our performance will be erratic to start with. We have to repeat something again and again before it sticks and becomes automatic. Equally when you first ask questions you may be surprised by the answers you get. It is a learning process. Tell your child this, and let them know that you know they are trying their best.
Where = a place
Who = a person